In the middle of our street I could see a big dog, running loose and barking at our house!

Ack.

My mind immediately flashed back to those pitbulls, but, I knew that, at least for the time being, they were still impounded by the city.

Then I noticed that the front door of the neighbor’s house across from us was wide open.

And there weren’t any cars in the driveway.

And I realized that the dog belonged to those neighbors.

Ack. Ack. Ack!

Something was not right.

This is not normal behavior for our neighbors. The family consists of a woman in her mid-forties and her severly handicapped son (he has one of the extreme forms of Muscular Dystrophy).

There used to be another son (also with MD) but he passed away this past Summer. The husband/father doesn’t live there currently as he and his wife are separated (although we do see him about once or twice a week, when he comes by to take care of the yard, and visit with his son).

But, we had seen the remaining son taken to the hospital by ambulance a week ago (another neighbor had told me that they didn’t expect him to live much longer either…) and since then there has been very little activity around the house for the last week.

Most nights there is a light on in one room and the front porch light is on, and there is a van in the driveway, and we have assumed that the mother is probably spending every evening at the hospital with her son.

So, what the heck was going on across the street?

We watched the house for another fifteen minutes. There was no activity other than the dog going in and out of the front door.

We called the police.

When the policeman arrived I went out to talk to him to explain the situation.

He went over to the house to try to check it out. No one answered him when he yelled into the house, and while the dog let him enter the house, he wouldn’t let him check one of the bedrooms, and the cop didn’t want to check the basement while the dog was running loose in the house.

So the policeman had to call, you guessed it, Animal Control.

And it took them almost an hour to get there!

And for most of that time, stupid me stood outside waiting as well, because every once in awhile the cop would stick his head out the door of the neighbor’s house and either ask me a question or tell me something.

And it was a chilly night in New England last night, my Minions!

Finally after about twenty minutes of not seeing the cop, I went back in our house and watched from the front window.

Finally the Animal Control van pulled up, and just as the Animal Control officer and the cop were about to go back into the house another car pulled up and into the driveway!

We could see a woman get out of the car, but, it wasn’t the mother. And they all went in the house together!

After a few minutes everyone came back out of the house, the woman shut the door and the woman and Animal Control each drove off!

The police officer was coming back up our driveway so I went out to talk to him.

Apparently while he was inside waiting for Animal Control to arrive he found some emergency numbers and called one of them.

It was for one of the son’s regular caretakers.

When the cop explained the situation she came right over. The dog knew her and let her put it in it’s crate and then she secured the house.

Apparently, whoever left the house last had not shut the door securely, as nothing was missing and there was no sign of forced entry. So either the dog had nudged it open or the wind had blown it open.

And that was that.

So, I was glad that we had called the police, because we didn’t know what time the mother would have come home, and who knows what would have happened to the house or the dog during that time.

And I came away from this experience with a good lesson.

While I knew these neighbors to say “hello” to, I couldn’t remember their last name, nor did I have any idea where they worked or who to call in the event of an emergency!

And in the same vein, none of our neighbors know anything about us. If something were to happen at our house neither they, nor the police would know who to call or anything.

So I am putting together a list of our work and cellphone numbers and our family member’s numbers and will be posting it on the refrigerator.

That is a good idea. We must do that also. In our new neighborhood we do not really know our neighbors nor they us. If something would happen to my wife and I, no one of our neighbors would have a clue as to who to call. Thanks for the tip and thanks for being a good neighbor to that family.

Debbi said,

I often feel like that too. Unless someone knows one of the kids, they have no idea where to find us either. I couldn’t tell you what the names are of the crazy people across the road either. And down the road there are the pig guy, the horse farm and the llama people. Not a clue as to what their names are just know them by what animals they have.

Glad everything was alright in the neighbors house. How sad about the two sons though.